Unwrapped
by Queerologist
Summary: Emma spends Christmas Eve with Henry and Regina, but she finds herself debating whether or not she should present Regina with the gift she has gotten her for the holidays. Her self-doubt eventually fades and Regina's reaction to the touching gift is anything less than expected. Perhaps emotions, like gifts, will be unwrapped as well this year.


**Unwrapped**  
>Written by Queerologist<p>

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><p>Her palms were damp with sweat, and her fingers were quivering as she gripped the small, wrapped box that sat on her lap. Chewing on her bottom lip, the blonde fidgeted, bouncing her knees, as she absently watched the lights upon the Christmas tree twinkle and glitter in the dim lighting of the living room. She wasn't entirely sure why she had decided to finish creating the silly gift, let alone wrap it and bring it with her to Regina's house. She could almost picture the brunette opening the gift and scoffing at her pitiful excuse of a heartfelt present. Sure, over the past couple of months their unusual relationship had turned into an oddly comforting, if tentative, friendship, but that didn't stop the negative thoughts from flooding into Emma's self-conscious mind. The very notion, no matter how far-fetched, still made Emma cringe, and she nearly stood in a feeble attempt to stash the gift somewhere the brunette could never find it. But, as she began to lift herself from her spot Regina re-entered the room and sat down beside her on the couch.<p>

"Henry's finally in bed," the brunette sighed, leaning into the plushy cushions. "I didn't think he would ever go to sleep."

"Yeah…" Emma breathed, continuing to worry her bottom lip, "he was pretty excited."

"Oh you have no idea," Regina chuckled, leaning up and peering over at the blonde, watching as the Christmas lights danced softly across Emma's face, "he's exhausting, I wonder _who_ he gets that from."

Green eyes finally left their focus on the neatly wrapped package and looked over at the brunette. Her dark eyes were gleaming playfully as she awaited Emma's response, but only silence followed, for the blonde was nearly mesmerized by how beautiful Regina looked in that moment. She looked peaceful, content, and perhaps even happy. The smile that played across the brunette's lips was something so pure, so genuine, that Emma couldn't take how it made her heart beat a little faster, or how it made her palms just a bit clammier.

"No wry retort?" Regina started after the silence became too prolonged, "you've lost your touch, Emma. And I was becoming so fond of our friendly banter."

"Regina…" Emma began after a moment, taking a slow breath as her fingers gripped the box on her lap tighter, "why did you invite me to spend Christmas Eve with you and Henry?"

The brunette stiffened instinctively at the question, but her limbs slowly loosened their tension as dark eyes looked intently on Emma's face, which posed nothing but slight curiosity, and the anticipation of an honest answer. Scraping her teeth against her bottom lip, Regina shifted her body so she was facing the blonde. Taking a moment to mull over the question, the brunette felt her hand lift of its own accord, but simply gathered both of them into her lap, ignoring the strange itch within her fingers as they longed to rest on Emma's knee.

"Why do you ask?"

"I don't know," Emma sighed awkwardly, her eyes unable to focus on Regina fully, "it's just…Christmas has always been you and Henry's thing, right? So, I just feel kind of weird invading that, y'know?"

"But you aren't invading anything, Emma," the brunette said, allowing a soft smile to curve at the corners of her lips, finding the blonde's uncharacteristic nervousness rather adorable, "Henry and I invited you. I wouldn't have welcomed the idea if I didn't truly want you to join us." Swallowing, Regina rubbed her palms gently up and down her thighs as she scooted closer to Emma. "You and I have had a very tumultuous past, and yet our relationship has matured, in a sense. We've even become something like friends to one another, and though I will continue to deny it to anyone else," taking a moment to silently chuckle at the blonde's expense, Regina finally reached her hand over and set it upon Emma's quivering knee, "I do enjoy your company."

A small, almost shy, smile spread across Emma's lips then as she felt the sudden heat reddening her cheeks. Allowing the breath she had been holding to leave her lungs, the blonde's body relaxed momentarily until she felt the warmth spread across her knee. Shifting her gaze to her lap, she nearly spluttered as she watched Regina's hand rub slow, soft circles against her lower thigh in comfort and reassurance. Clearing her throat, Emma shifted the gift in her lap away from Regina's fingers before letting herself relish in the tantalizing sensation of the brunette's touch. No thoughts of fear, or rejection occupied her mind as the heat from Regina's palm continued to spread throughout her limbs, and so the blonde took a chance and sat the present on the couch between the two of them. After a moment, Emma watched as Regina's dark eyed gaze wavered from her own green eyes and down towards the neatly wrapped package. Raising a brow in question, the brunette looked back up at Emma for confirmation.

"Yeah…" the blonde breathed, feeling the nerves wind around her vocal cords, "I got you a little something. Kind of a _'thank you_'for inviting me and all. It isn't much—"

"Emma…" Regina sighed, cutting the other woman off, her hands nervously lifting to hover over the gift, "you really shouldn't have."

"It's nothing really, just open it okay? And maybe try and pretend you like it?"

The vulnerability that encompassed Regina then was overwhelming, and she shook her hands lightly to force them to stop quivering as she lowered them and let her fingertips ghost across the top of the box. She couldn't remember the last time anyone, other than Henry, had gotten her a gift for any occasion, and it made her heart flutter within her chest. A breath caught within her throat as she peered up at Emma tentatively, shaken by the way those green eyes burned into her skin, full of excitement, nervousness, and a glimmer of something else. Tearing her gaze away from Emma, Regina collected herself, stifling the delicately blooming emotions that were flowing within her veins, and began, carefully, tearing away the wrapping paper. After the gift was unwrapped, the brunette stared down at the dull, cardboard box before taking a breath and opening it to reveal Henry's storybook. Furrowing her brows in confusion, Regina looked over to Emma once more, her eyelashes fluttering quicker than usual as she continued to shift her focus between the book and Emma's face.

"Flip to the end of the book, okay?"

Nodding absently, the brunette lifted the leather bound book from the box and sat it on her lap. Tucking an errant strand of hair behind her ear, Regina worried her bottom lip as she opened the cover and slowly, cautiously, flipped through the pages until she reached the end of the story. Her fingers grazed across the haphazardly added new pages before turning them, eyeing them with a distorted, watery focus. The brunette's heart stalled within her chest, aching, as hot tears formed within the corners of her eyes while she looked upon Emma's new ending to the story. Her lips parted as a silent, shaking gasp left her throat and all she could do was trace her fingers across the neatly scrawled words: "_And the Evil Queen, who wasn't really evil after all, lived happily ever after_". The words sat across from a beautifully painted water colour picture of a smiling Regina hugging Henry tightly, while Emma stood with her arm loosely draped across Regina's shoulders.

"Oh, Emma…" the brunette whispered, her voice soft, and nearly cracking as tears burned behind her eyes, "I…"

"Listen," Emma began frantically, her fear of Regina rejecting her present hammered within her brain as she slid closer to the other woman, "I know it was a pretty lame gift, and I should have done better. I just…look, I promised you a happy ending, and you're gonna have it eventually as long as me and Henry are here. I just…I wanted you to know how much I—how much I'm trying to give you that…And I know writing it in a book may not change that but I just…I wanted to show you it means something to me—"

The large lump that rested in Regina's throat ached as she listened to the blonde as she continued to speak, and the emotions that Emma was invoking within her, with every single shaken word, made her uncomfortable, but it also made the brunette feel loved. Which, if she were to be truthful made her feel the most frightened of all. Regina wasn't accustomed to allowing herself to be so frivolous with her vulnerabilities, or her feelings, but the blonde had truly become someone she could trust, someone she cared for, and so the brunette took a deep breath. With her pulse sporadically spiking within her veins, and her breath continuously catching in the back of her throat, Regina faced Emma, taking a moment to acknowledge the disappoint scrawled within her green eyes. She was biding her time, she wasn't used to thanking people, especially for something that was so beautifully overwhelming that it nearly made her nauseous, but the brunette had to try. She needed to express to Emma, in some way, that she was utterly grateful, that she understood how important their happiness was to each other, and that…

"Regina, I'm sorry I should have gotten you something else, I knew it was a stupid idea…"

"Emma," Regina cut in softly as she set the storybook aside and waited for Emma to acknowledge her.

"I just, I don't know, wanted to give you something meaningful. You know?"

"Emma!"

"I know, I know, I get it, it was dumb, I mean look, I didn't even get your faces right. Hell, they're not even faces, just blobs of paint that look pathetic. I tried though—"

Rolling her eyes as the blonde failed to shut up for two seconds in order to be properly thanked, Regina groaned before shaking her head and decided to act, instead of speak. For actions had always spoke louder than words, and the brunette could attest to that. So, as she blew away the nervousness that coveted her frame, she quickly reached forward until her cool palms were cupping Emma's warm cheeks. Taking a small moment to breathe, and wet her lips, Regina's eyes fell closed as she leaned in. Once her lips were inches away from Emma's, when the blonde could suddenly feel the hot breath against her mouth, her words were finally silenced.

"Thank you, Emma…" Regina breathed, her lips ghosting across the blonde's, "for the present, and for finally shutting up."

At that, Emma smirked shyly as she surged forward, allowing their lips to finally touch. The kiss was slow, and cautious, both women unsure of what they were trying to express to one another, but their thoughts were quickly pushed aside as their tongues brushed, eliciting something akin to sensory overload as they found themselves lost in the other's mouth. After several moments they parted, their eyes slowly fluttering open to look at one another. Their eyes held unshed tears from moments of nervousness, and questions that they were both aware would need to be answered. Their hearts were both pattering an unnatural pattern within their chests as they continued to stare at one another in a sense of wonder, and shock from what they knew they both felt when their mouths touched.

"So, uh, you liked it? Really?"

"I loved it, Emma." Regina nodded, finding it hard to find her words as a combination of fear, and excitement threaded within her mind. "It means very much to know that you, and Henry, care so much about my happiness."

"Well, yeah of course we do, I mean we both—uh…care about you a lot. I mean we're friends, right?"

"I…" chewing on her bottom lip for a moment, the brunette looked to the blonde and could see nothing but love within her nervous, shifting eyes and knew that those sentiments, those emotions were mirrored within her own. "…yes, friends."

Silence fell between them then, but it seemed to add a sense of comfort to the room that was now riddled with some many emotions, and so many unsaid truths. Both women could feel the pull between them, they knew that something other than friendship was building, and had been building, for a very long time. And yet, neither woman could fully allow themselves to unwrap their reservations so completely as to thrust those delicate, fragile feelings out into the open. And so they sat in the dimly lit living room in silence, their bodies unconsciously inching closer together until Regina's head was resting upon Emma's shoulder. The blonde, full of nerves and questions of her own, was unable to help herself as she gently wrapped her arm around the other woman and rested her cheek atop the brunette's head.

They sat like that until neither woman could keep their eyes open, until their bodies shifted, and their minds wandered into sleep. Even in rest both women craved each other's presence, and it wasn't a coincidence that their bodies ended up wrapped around the other as they slept. Perhaps they were friends, but that wasn't all that was bubbling beneath the surface, and maybe it was because it Christmas Eve, or that one unwrapped present that gave way to something more powerful, and more magical than either woman could understand. But truth be told, that was the very night Regina, and Emma truly discovered that their happiness, and their happy endings resided within their son, and their slowly growing feelings for one another.

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><p><strong>AN:** _I apologize in advance for this story as it's pure Christmas fluff, and I am terrible at writing fluff. I just really wanted to produce something cute and adorable for the holidays. I kind of rushed through the whole thing in a matter of hours, so please be forgiving if there are any mistakes of if it's just written incredibly badly. Feel free to share your thoughts, good or bad (but please don't be too harsh, I'm a very sensitive, haha) in the reviews section. Happy Holidays to all of SWEN!_


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